On Tuesday June 5th, 2012, I was prohibited from boarding my plane in Costa Rica bound for San Diego. I learned that I had been placed on "no fly list". I am a recent graduate from the United Nations-Mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. My lifelong dream has been to effect a positive change in this world by placing myself at the epicenter of the struggle for human rights, thus I chose to study International Law at UFP.

I endured a two hour interrogation by FBI agents and a six hour wait at the American Embassy in Costa Rica, all to finally be told that I was on a "no fly list, and that I would have to cross with a boat or a car back into the US. I am stranded in Costa Rica with little money, just the clothes on my back, and my lap top. My plan is to fly from Costa Rica to TJ, and then drive to San Diego; however, I fear for my safety at the US-Mex border.

I am being persecuted because I am an American-Iranian-Muslim-Activist. The "no fly list" is an assault on our American Civil Liberties, and is tool to discriminate against people based on ethnicity, religion, and political views. I am being persecuted because I am an America-Iranian-Muslim activist.

I am asking for your help! My plan is to arrive to the states on Thursday, at which time I am ready to pursue a legal case based on profiling and discrimination. My goal is to highlight not the personal, but the larger injustice people of conscious face do to our beliefs. I need your help to distribute the press release letter, and to help with your expertise in law, grass roots mobilization, and letter writing to political officials.

I am being persecuted because I am an American-Iranian-Muslim-Activist, but the message of freedom and the struggle for human rights will never cease. It will only grow stronger. I appreciate your support, and I hope to hear back from you soon.

President Obama with his Defense Secretary and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Two US reports published today provide significant insights into President Obama’s personal and controversial role in the escalating covert US drone war in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

In a major extract from Daniel Klaidman’s forthcoming book Kill Or Capture, the author reveals extensive details of how secret US drone strikes have evolved under Obama – and how the president knew of civilian casualties from his earliest days in office.

The Times’ report also reveals that President Obama personally authorised a broadening of the term ‘civilian’, helping to limit any public controversy over ‘non-combatant’ deaths.

Civilian Deaths from Day ThreeAs the Bureau’s own data on Pakistan makes clear, the very first covert drone strikes of the Obama presidency, just three days after he took office, resulted in civilian deaths in Pakistan. As many as 19 civilians – including four children – died in two error-filled attacks.

Until now it had been thought that Obama was initially unaware of the civilian deaths. Bob Woodward has reported that the president was only told by CIA chief Michael Hayden that the strikes had missed their High Value Target but had killed ‘five al Qaeda militants.’

Now Newsweek correspondent Daniel Klaidman reveals that Obama knew about the civilian deaths within hours. He reports an anonymous participant at a subsequent meeting with the President: ‘You could tell from his body language that he was not a happy man.’ Obama is described aggressively questioning the tactics used.

It should not come as a surprise to see the once leftist, President Obama, move increasingly towards the right. The advocate of “change” who promoted peace and regression of American preemptive wars is a man of broken promises. As the 2012 presidential elections approach, a more aggressive Obama has emerged.

The Born-Again Neocon

Billy Kristol, neocon and key Iraq war architect, praises Obama's recent actions and calls him a born again neocon.

While pounding the war drums, the Neocons have come to the aid of President Obama. Daniel Pipes offered free advice to President Obama: if Obama wants to win reelection in 2012 he must be at war with Iran.

Condemned to repeat the past

Past US allies consisted of Saddam Hussein, Prince Osama (a.k.a Osama Bin Laden), Taliban (days before 9/11 US gave Taliban $43 million in aid) and we all know the result of these friendships. But has America learned from her past? Just today WSJ published an article saying Obama is days away from delisting MEK from the State Department's terror list.

David Rubin, former mayor of the Israeli city of Shiloh and author of The Islamic Tsunami: Israel and America in the Age of Obama, says it would be a "great disappointment" if French President Nicholas Sarkozy loses his re-election bid on Sunday.

"It certainly would be a great disappointment," he admits, "and it wouldn't be a positive move for France or for Western civilization if Sarkozy doesn't get in."

Update:

Sunday: Sarkozy lost the elections

David Rubin, former mayor of the Israeli city of Shiloh and author of The Islamic Tsunami: Israel and America in the Age of Obama, says it would be a "great disappointment" if French President Nicholas Sarkozy loses his re-election bid on Sunday.

"It certainly would be a great disappointment," he admits, "and it wouldn't be a positive move for France or for Western civilization if Sarkozy doesn't get in."

I have long written of discrimination, abuse and xenophobia as suffered by others; from Blacks in Libya to Muslims in the United States of America. But nothing could prepare me for this piece, one which will attempt to humbly relay what little information I am permitted to discuss, covering a lawsuit against the restaurant chain known as the International House of Pancakes (IHOP).

My father had worked for IHOP some 12 years; he began as an assistant manager working tiring night-shifts, moving up along the ladder towards his final position as a district manager overseeing 4 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, even being asked by IHOP to make two trips to Ohio in order to train IHOP managers in that district.

I recall trips my younger siblings and I would make with my father, assisting him with lifting heavy boxes, files et al. He would take it upon himself to stay up late in the evening so he may resolve all assigned work, and often those unassigned, beyond even satisfactory achievement. The walls of our home are decorated with awards and certificates he has received from IHOP: Best Manager, Best Sales, Certificate of “above and beyond achievement” etc.

Despite my fathers commendable history at IHOP he is one of four men who were fired for being Arab and Muslim in 2010, nearly two years ago.

My father, lead plaintiff Hussein Chamseddine, maintains that Glendale, Calif.-based IHOP and Coppell-based Anthraper Investments wrongfully fired him and three other longtime employees – Rami Saleh, Brandon Adam and Chekri Bakro – in a span of nearly 10 months and replaced them with non-Arab, non-Muslim employees, despite all four men having repeatedly received good performance reviews and having suffered discriminatory harassment at work.

The Governor of Pakistan's lawless Balochistan province says the Army may be summoned in the provincial capital city, Quetta, after adramatic escalation in ethnic and sectarian violence. Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, the Governor, has strongly criticized the provincial government and suggested it to resign from the office due to its stark failure to curb the deadly wave of violence targeting the Shia, Hazara minority community. If not immediately contained, the governor fears, this spate of violence may push the gas-rich region bordering Iran-Afghanistan into a state of civil war.

In Pakistan, the Governor of a province is the representative of the State appointed by the President. His is a symbolic title with almost no administrative powers. The daily affairs of the government are run by the Chief Minister who is elected by the regional legislature for a five-year term.

Governor Magsi, who himself served Balochistan twice in 1990s as a successful chief minister in terms of ensuring peace and stability in the province, says he is running out of patience with the poor performance of the current regional coalition government headed by the Pakistan People's Party. "People are tired of carrying the dead bodies of their loved ones," he says and further turns skeptical of the government when he reads newspaper statements from the serving ministers who grumble over the breakdown of the law and order. Yet these ministers, on their part, do nothing to improve the conditions despite having the mandate and the authority to do so.

"There is no point [for the ministers] to remain a part of the government, on the one hand, and then still criticize it, on the other hand," said the Governor, "the best option for them is to quit the cabinet and join the Opposition."

The Sunni militant group, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, with close contacts with al Qaeda and the Taliban has been steadily stepping up brutal assaults on Shia, Hazaras.

On Saturday, April 14, at least eight members of the minority Hazara community were shot dead in two separate attacks in Quetta. These attacks come immediately after a number of similar attacks in the recent weeks in which the feeble Hazara minority community has been singled out and victimized.

Bill in Congress could suspend your passport if you own taxes to the IRS

Written by Administrator

Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:31

Efforts to pass a bill that would allow the IRS to deny travel rights to U.S. citizens who the feds merely claim owe $50,000 or more in delinquent taxes represents a de facto move to revoke the citizenship of Americans without due process and in complete violation of the Constitution.

A recently passed Senate bill, the suitably Orwellian entitled ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’, includes a provision that allows the federal government to revoke passports of Americans accused of owing back taxes.

Efforts to pass a bill that would allow the IRS to deny travel rights to U.S. citizens who the feds merely claim owe $50,000 or more in delinquent taxes represents a de facto move to revoke the citizenship of Americans without due process and in complete violation of the Constitution.

A recently passed Senate bill, the suitably Orwellian entitled ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’, includes a provision that allows the federal government to revoke passports of Americans accused of owing back taxes.